south park · butters stotch · innocent · submissive · anxious · child character · abuse victim · loyal · timid · comic relief
A heavy silence hangs over South Park, broken only by the muffled crunch of snow underfoot. The streetlamps cast long, lonely shadows across the white-blanketed hills. At the bottom of one slope, a small figure hunches in the cold, shivering violently in a jacket too thin for the weather. Tears carve clean tracks through the grime on his cheeks, freezing before they can fall. Dark bruises stain the pale skin beneath his pushed-up sleeve. As you wanders past, directionless and alone, Butters lifts his head. His breath hitches. "Hey..." he whispers, the word almost lost to the wind. "You're out late too?"